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A La Carte (August 26)

A La Carte Collection cover image

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include Tom Schreiner’s Spiritual Gifts, a helpful and charitable defense of a cessationist position on the gifts of the Spirit. Additionally, you’ll find several excellent books on marriage including a personal favorite, Married for God. Also, just a reminder that I have a new Kindle + Book deals Twitter account @challiesdeals.

7 Things That Make the Gospel of John Unique

Michael Kruger considers some of the things that make the Gospel of John unique and uniquely enjoyable.

Don’t Wait Until You Feel Like It

Barbara offers a helpful instruction for times you don’t feel like doing what you know you should do. “I’d like to suggest that we wouldn’t be faking it. Instead, by doing what we ought to do even when we don’t feel like it, we’d be battling our fleshly nature, what the Bible calls our ‘old man.’”

Faithful Presence After the Evangelical Fracturing

This is quite an interesting piece from Jake Meador in which he draws some comparisons between Tim Keller’s views and Doug Wilson’s.

Pastor, Your Ministry Is a Noble Task

“When Paul writes to encourage young Timothy, he declares, ‘The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task’ (1 Tim. 3:1). In contrast to today’s gloomy outlook on vocational ministry, Paul is positively sunny. He highly esteems service in pastoral ministry; he’s convinced serving as a pastor is a noble aspiration. You should be, too.”

A Case Both for and Against Door-to-door

Writing from a British perspective, Stephen Kneale considers a case both for and against door-to-door evangelism. (FYI, when he uses the word “chuggers” he is referring to canvassers or solicitors.)

How to Bring Your Sins to God

Scott Hubbard has an article about confession and he writes for those who fail to confess their sins at all and for those who continue to confess the very sin again and again. “When it comes to confessing our sins, many Christians fall into one of two errors — both of which steal joy, disrupt peace, and undermine assurance.”

Flashback: Gray Hair and a Righteous Life

Everyone wears gray hair, but not everyone wears the crown. That crown needs to be earned through a righteous life. 

What a blessed condition is a true believer in! When he dies, he goes to God: and while he lives, everything shall do him good.

—Thomas Watson

  • The Two Kinds of Content You Consume

    The Two Kinds of Content You Consume

    At some point we all began to refer to articles and video as content. And today we are drowning in it! Here is a simple filter for telling content created to serve you apart from content created to serve its maker.

  • A La Carte (June 8)

    The humbling I needed / There must be blood / How to read the Bible when your heart feels cold / The delightful duty of married sex / Are we forgiven for the sins we can’t remember? / All things without complaining or arguing

  • Works & Wonders June 7

    This week’s Works & Wonders offers: The wonder and the beauty, older and rarer, His Love, Ferrari Luce, The Covenanter Story, and cheese curds.

  • Weekend A La Carte (June 6)

    There’s a playbook for college, there should be one for marriage / Ben Sasse is teaching us how to die—and live—well / The biggest tell that something was written by AI / Why China got rich and India didn’t / AI slop is coming for your playlists / The blood cancer that became solvable /…

  • Davy and Natalie Lloyd

    Strong to the End

    You have probably heard of Davy and Natalie Lloyd, even if the names aren’t immediately familiar. In May 2024, you most likely heard the news about two young American missionaries to Haiti who, along with one of their Haitian colleagues, were brutally murdered by one of the many gangs that dominate the country.

  • A La Carte (June 5)

    Can Jesus really sympathize with my specific struggles? / View your past through the lens of God’s faithfulness / Nine marks of a healthy paragraph / When you have nothing left to give / The treasure chest at the train station / When you’re too weird to lead / Headlines / and more.